Suchergebnisse

The main subject of the article is corruption and lack of transparency in Lithuanian media. In the first part of the article, the phenomenon of media corruption is analysed, including main features of this phenomenon and differences in various countries. Examples of good practice of fighting corruption are analysed as well. The second part of the article is dedicated to Lithuanian experience related to corruption and non-transparent practices in the media sector. Subsequently, according to the analysis of the legal basis and the results of qualitative interviews with experts in the field, the author proposes recommendations concerning suitable measures to prevent corruption in the media sector. Corruption in media is a complex phenomenon with latent character; therefore it is quite complicated to research and measure. According to scientific literature, the level of corruption in the media sector is strongly related to the general level of corruption in a particular society. Media corruption in different world regions and countries has its own dynamics, structure and intensity. The situation in some of post-communist countries could be characterised as "systemic media corruption" or "vicious media market". It would be a bit of an exaggeration to assign Lithuania to such group of countries; however, there are problematic areas in the Lithuanian media sector. Based on the results of the research, especially vulnerable areas are regional media and the funding of public relations services. According to the opinion of the experts, a serious problem is non-transparent informal relations between politicians and media outlets. Lack of the transparency could be noticed regarding ownership of the particular outlets. Moreover, sometimes owners act as de facto editors. Key players in the Lithuanian media sector are businesses, politicians and owners of media outlets. A big threat to transparency is when a politician owns particular outlet. Furthermore, in some cases the emergence of the so-called oligarchic triangle could be observed, i.e. that politicians, businesses and media outlets (or owners of the outlets) work together, and this scheme is especially dangerous. In order to increase transparency in the media sector, information concerning ownership of media outlets should be made available to the public as much as possible by, for instance, imposing a requirement for media organisations to provide such information on their offcial websites. Another problematic area is funding (in most cases from EU structural funds) for public relations that is administered by public bodies. The main problem is non-transparent public procurement tenders, where public relations agencies act as intermediaries between public bodies and media outlets. In addition, it should be stressed that the Lithuanian media is quite vulnerable financially, especially in the rural regions, where the advertising market is small. In order to curb media corruption and raise awareness about this issue among journalists, it is recommended to organize special training or conferences on the subject. Another possibility is to establish scholarships for the best research in investigative journalism. In this case, it is important to consider the source of funding and an independent body that could grant such scholarships. Lastly, it should be noted that while the recent adoption of Whistleblowers' protection law is also a positive change in the media sector, it is diffcult to say how effective it will be in the future because implementation of the law is strongly dependent on substatutory legal acts and the role of Public Prosecutor's office.

The main subject of the article is corruption and lack of transparency in Lithuanian media. In the first part of the article, the phenomenon of media corruption is analysed, including main features of this phenomenon and differences in various countries. Examples of good practice of fighting corruption are analysed as well. The second part of the article is dedicated to Lithuanian experience related to corruption and non-transparent practices in the media sector. Subsequently, according to the analysis of the legal basis and the results of qualitative interviews with experts in the field, the author proposes recommendations concerning suitable measures to prevent corruption in the media sector. Corruption in media is a complex phenomenon with latent character; therefore it is quite complicated to research and measure. According to scientific literature, the level of corruption in the media sector is strongly related to the general level of corruption in a particular society. Media corruption in different world regions and countries has its own dynamics, structure and intensity. The situation in some of post-communist countries could be characterised as "systemic media corruption" or "vicious media market". It would be a bit of an exaggeration to assign Lithuania to such group of countries; however, there are problematic areas in the Lithuanian media sector. Based on the results of the research, especially vulnerable areas are regional media and the funding of public relations services. According to the opinion of the experts, a serious problem is non-transparent informal relations between politicians and media outlets. Lack of the transparency could be noticed regarding ownership of the particular outlets. Moreover, sometimes owners act as de facto editors. Key players in the Lithuanian media sector are businesses, politicians and owners of media outlets. A big threat to transparency is when a politician owns particular outlet. Furthermore, in some cases the emergence of the so-called oligarchic triangle could be observed, i.e. that politicians, businesses and media outlets (or owners of the outlets) work together, and this scheme is especially dangerous. In order to increase transparency in the media sector, information concerning ownership of media outlets should be made available to the public as much as possible by, for instance, imposing a requirement for media organisations to provide such information on their offcial websites. Another problematic area is funding (in most cases from EU structural funds) for public relations that is administered by public bodies. The main problem is non-transparent public procurement tenders, where public relations agencies act as intermediaries between public bodies and media outlets. In addition, it should be stressed that the Lithuanian media is quite vulnerable financially, especially in the rural regions, where the advertising market is small. In order to curb media corruption and raise awareness about this issue among journalists, it is recommended to organize special training or conferences on the subject. Another possibility is to establish scholarships for the best research in investigative journalism. In this case, it is important to consider the source of funding and an independent body that could grant such scholarships. Lastly, it should be noted that while the recent adoption of Whistleblowers' protection law is also a positive change in the media sector, it is diffcult to say how effective it will be in the future because implementation of the law is strongly dependent on substatutory legal acts and the role of Public Prosecutor's office.

Offences in private life are dayly occurrence. Public information means very often abuse their own rights and in impermissible ways struggle through private lives instead of presenting more information about personal life inviolability and its defence possibilities. This kind of situation has several backgrounds – first of all, after soviet period`s deprivation of individual lives and poor legal education of the society it is still felt that people are not used to defend their offenced rights, using all possibilities provoded by law; secondly, due to enourmous infomation technologies' development pace science of law cannot keep up properly analysing and evaluating newly appeared relations, so standarts of law solve practical problems just for a part. The information of the society requires high culture level, strong ethic and moral positions, respect to the values and moral norms, recognized on the country's, national and international levels. This is the sphere, where narrow private and group interests, wishes to apply and develop demoralizing show business "culture", abuse of ethic norms should not be acceptable. Freedom of the media is inseparatable from social and legal responsibility, because when standarts of law do not work, democraty suffers and human rights are downgraded. The essence of the right of personal life inviolability is the right to decide himself/herself what kind and amount of information to reveal about own private life under the condition that such information can be announced just having the permit of the person. In such cases, when person's right of personal life inviolability is being defended, there is conflict of two equal constitutional values – the right of personal life inviolability and society's right to know, so it is important to look for wise and honest ballance of the two defended rights. On the other hand, each right and freedom has its edges, which are indicated in the laws in order to defend public interest and rights of other people. The right of personal life inviolability is expired, when there is need to stop a criminal action, defend rights of other persons and when society has to be defended from abuses of authority´s representatives.

Offences in private life are dayly occurrence. Public information means very often abuse their own rights and in impermissible ways struggle through private lives instead of presenting more information about personal life inviolability and its defence possibilities. This kind of situation has several backgrounds – first of all, after soviet period`s deprivation of individual lives and poor legal education of the society it is still felt that people are not used to defend their offenced rights, using all possibilities provoded by law; secondly, due to enourmous infomation technologies' development pace science of law cannot keep up properly analysing and evaluating newly appeared relations, so standarts of law solve practical problems just for a part. The information of the society requires high culture level, strong ethic and moral positions, respect to the values and moral norms, recognized on the country's, national and international levels. This is the sphere, where narrow private and group interests, wishes to apply and develop demoralizing show business "culture", abuse of ethic norms should not be acceptable. Freedom of the media is inseparatable from social and legal responsibility, because when standarts of law do not work, democraty suffers and human rights are downgraded. The essence of the right of personal life inviolability is the right to decide himself/herself what kind and amount of information to reveal about own private life under the condition that such information can be announced just having the permit of the person. In such cases, when person's right of personal life inviolability is being defended, there is conflict of two equal constitutional values – the right of personal life inviolability and society's right to know, so it is important to look for wise and honest ballance of the two defended rights. On the other hand, each right and freedom has its edges, which are indicated in the laws in order to defend public interest and rights of other people. The right of personal life inviolability is expired, when there is need to stop a criminal action, defend rights of other persons and when society has to be defended from abuses of authority´s representatives.

Society of Lithuania from classic sociological perspective is still on the social change. There is no strong middle class, like in the old democracy states, the power holders are constantly in change, and economy is also in transition. As a result, the structure of society is unstable; therefore it is hard to identify members of one group or the other. In this work, according to elite theory, society is divided in two groups: mass and elite. The mass consists of a huge number of people, however not as powerful as another one. The elite is a small group of people, which is more privileged, has a stronger influence in public life, better welfare, more capital, and more freedom. This group is in the top position of society and it takes the main decisions in the state. Hence, one of the objects of this work is the media audiences as society groups – mass and elite. Another one is the mass media and elite media. The purpose of this work is to examine the working of mass and elite media. The task to reach that purpose are these: (1) explore the structure of society which is consistent of two groups – mass and elite; (2) to establish the position of the media in mass-elite relation and communication; (3) to analyze mass media and its relation to mass audience; (4) to analyze elite media and its role in society. In the empirical part of the work the exploratory investigation is made. The aim of the investigation is to settle the tendencies of mass and elite media usage. The object of investigation is TV (4 biggest Lithuania TV channels) viewing. The method of investigation is the TV rating analysis, which has to confirm or deny the two hypotheses: firstly, both the mass and the elite audience are using TV for self-amusing. Secondly, the priorities of audiences differ in genres and in programmes. The first of hypothesis is proven, as mass media uses mostly genres of entertainment, reality show and elite media is attracted mostly to sport. However as we can see the information programmes sometimes also have high rating for mass audience. So, the assumption can be made, that mass audience uses TV for many purposes as TV is the main media for it. The second hypothesis was neither confirmed, nor denied. The reasons of that could be found in the bigger audience fragmentation, because the enhanced number of media channels. And this fragmentation of course starts from those who have possibilities to reach these channels – elite audience.

Society of Lithuania from classic sociological perspective is still on the social change. There is no strong middle class, like in the old democracy states, the power holders are constantly in change, and economy is also in transition. As a result, the structure of society is unstable; therefore it is hard to identify members of one group or the other. In this work, according to elite theory, society is divided in two groups: mass and elite. The mass consists of a huge number of people, however not as powerful as another one. The elite is a small group of people, which is more privileged, has a stronger influence in public life, better welfare, more capital, and more freedom. This group is in the top position of society and it takes the main decisions in the state. Hence, one of the objects of this work is the media audiences as society groups – mass and elite. Another one is the mass media and elite media. The purpose of this work is to examine the working of mass and elite media. The task to reach that purpose are these: (1) explore the structure of society which is consistent of two groups – mass and elite; (2) to establish the position of the media in mass-elite relation and communication; (3) to analyze mass media and its relation to mass audience; (4) to analyze elite media and its role in society. In the empirical part of the work the exploratory investigation is made. The aim of the investigation is to settle the tendencies of mass and elite media usage. The object of investigation is TV (4 biggest Lithuania TV channels) viewing. The method of investigation is the TV rating analysis, which has to confirm or deny the two hypotheses: firstly, both the mass and the elite audience are using TV for self-amusing. Secondly, the priorities of audiences differ in genres and in programmes. The first of hypothesis is proven, as mass media uses mostly genres of entertainment, reality show and elite media is attracted mostly to sport. However as we can see the information programmes sometimes also have high rating for mass audience. So, the assumption can be made, that mass audience uses TV for many purposes as TV is the main media for it. The second hypothesis was neither confirmed, nor denied. The reasons of that could be found in the bigger audience fragmentation, because the enhanced number of media channels. And this fragmentation of course starts from those who have possibilities to reach these channels – elite audience.

Society of Lithuania from classic sociological perspective is still on the social change. There is no strong middle class, like in the old democracy states, the power holders are constantly in change, and economy is also in transition. As a result, the structure of society is unstable; therefore it is hard to identify members of one group or the other. In this work, according to elite theory, society is divided in two groups: mass and elite. The mass consists of a huge number of people, however not as powerful as another one. The elite is a small group of people, which is more privileged, has a stronger influence in public life, better welfare, more capital, and more freedom. This group is in the top position of society and it takes the main decisions in the state. Hence, one of the objects of this work is the media audiences as society groups – mass and elite. Another one is the mass media and elite media. The purpose of this work is to examine the working of mass and elite media. The task to reach that purpose are these: (1) explore the structure of society which is consistent of two groups – mass and elite; (2) to establish the position of the media in mass-elite relation and communication; (3) to analyze mass media and its relation to mass audience; (4) to analyze elite media and its role in society. In the empirical part of the work the exploratory investigation is made. The aim of the investigation is to settle the tendencies of mass and elite media usage. The object of investigation is TV (4 biggest Lithuania TV channels) viewing. The method of investigation is the TV rating analysis, which has to confirm or deny the two hypotheses: firstly, both the mass and the elite audience are using TV for self-amusing. Secondly, the priorities of audiences differ in genres and in programmes. The first of hypothesis is proven, as mass media uses mostly genres of entertainment, reality show and elite media is attracted mostly to sport. However as we can see the information programmes sometimes also have high rating for mass audience. So, the assumption can be made, that mass audience uses TV for many purposes as TV is the main media for it. The second hypothesis was neither confirmed, nor denied. The reasons of that could be found in the bigger audience fragmentation, because the enhanced number of media channels. And this fragmentation of course starts from those who have possibilities to reach these channels – elite audience.

Society of Lithuania from classic sociological perspective is still on the social change. There is no strong middle class, like in the old democracy states, the power holders are constantly in change, and economy is also in transition. As a result, the structure of society is unstable; therefore it is hard to identify members of one group or the other. In this work, according to elite theory, society is divided in two groups: mass and elite. The mass consists of a huge number of people, however not as powerful as another one. The elite is a small group of people, which is more privileged, has a stronger influence in public life, better welfare, more capital, and more freedom. This group is in the top position of society and it takes the main decisions in the state. Hence, one of the objects of this work is the media audiences as society groups – mass and elite. Another one is the mass media and elite media. The purpose of this work is to examine the working of mass and elite media. The task to reach that purpose are these: (1) explore the structure of society which is consistent of two groups – mass and elite; (2) to establish the position of the media in mass-elite relation and communication; (3) to analyze mass media and its relation to mass audience; (4) to analyze elite media and its role in society. In the empirical part of the work the exploratory investigation is made. The aim of the investigation is to settle the tendencies of mass and elite media usage. The object of investigation is TV (4 biggest Lithuania TV channels) viewing. The method of investigation is the TV rating analysis, which has to confirm or deny the two hypotheses: firstly, both the mass and the elite audience are using TV for self-amusing. Secondly, the priorities of audiences differ in genres and in programmes. The first of hypothesis is proven, as mass media uses mostly genres of entertainment, reality show and elite media is attracted mostly to sport. However as we can see the information programmes sometimes also have high rating for mass audience. So, the assumption can be made, that mass audience uses TV for many purposes as TV is the main media for it. The second hypothesis was neither confirmed, nor denied. The reasons of that could be found in the bigger audience fragmentation, because the enhanced number of media channels. And this fragmentation of course starts from those who have possibilities to reach these channels – elite audience.

Civil society is a necessity without which democracy can turn into political technocracy. The neoliberal ideology faces new challenges forcing a rethink underlying the individual and the state and free media and its activity and specificity. We encounter a vivid problem when a group of people who own the media resources have all the tools to shape the public opinion according to their demands. Public commentators become the subjects of public opinion when they analyze the current events. The discourse which is created by these people has suggestibility, subjectivism and ideological style thus creating and having influence on the public opinion. This factor led to more closely analyze the Lithuanian media commentators public discourse in the context of civil initiatives and to evaluate the influence of the discourse of civil society development, based on the principles of liberal democracy. The object of this work is Lithuanian news agencies "Delfi.lt", "15min", "Lrytas.lt", and "lrt.lt" commentator's publications related to the mass initiatives of "supermarket boycott" and "protests against the new Labour Code" which both happened in 2016. The paper examines discreditation of civil initiatives, as one of the attributes of a liberal democracy, in the public space. In order to examine the problem, there are 5 tasks to fallow: (1) to discuss the main features of the collective activities of liberal democracy; (2) to assess the media as a political tool of communication to the public knowledge; (3) to disclosure the selected social initiatives characteristics; (4) to perform selected media portals public commentators publications qualitative discourse analysis, highlighting the main findings; (5) to assess the dominant media portals statements by liberal democratic criteria and assessing the significance of the discourse for civil society. The qualitative discourse analysis method was used for the analyzed problem. A structured interview was also used as a method which helped to disclose and assess the positions of the online media commentators for the relevant civil initiatives. The research revealed that the initiative "supermarket boycott" attempted not only to use its collective action resources to change the market prices but to have solidarity with the most vulnerable social groups as well. Meanwhile the protesters against the new Labour Code were holding a position against the bill thus creating resonance within the society and contributing to the growth of the protest culture in Lithuania. The discourse of the public commentators in the public space assessing the civil and social initiatives opposes the liberal democracy principals where free people meetings (freedom of association) are one of the core ideas of liberal democracy. While having the resources to construct the public opinion, the public commenter's limit the possibilities for other opposing doctrines to appear and act - allowing us to make a conclusion that pluralism is not appreciated. The dominant discourse implies ideas about negative consequences for the liberal and civil society's development.

Civil society is a necessity without which democracy can turn into political technocracy. The neoliberal ideology faces new challenges forcing a rethink underlying the individual and the state and free media and its activity and specificity. We encounter a vivid problem when a group of people who own the media resources have all the tools to shape the public opinion according to their demands. Public commentators become the subjects of public opinion when they analyze the current events. The discourse which is created by these people has suggestibility, subjectivism and ideological style thus creating and having influence on the public opinion. This factor led to more closely analyze the Lithuanian media commentators public discourse in the context of civil initiatives and to evaluate the influence of the discourse of civil society development, based on the principles of liberal democracy. The object of this work is Lithuanian news agencies "Delfi.lt", "15min", "Lrytas.lt", and "lrt.lt" commentator's publications related to the mass initiatives of "supermarket boycott" and "protests against the new Labour Code" which both happened in 2016. The paper examines discreditation of civil initiatives, as one of the attributes of a liberal democracy, in the public space. In order to examine the problem, there are 5 tasks to fallow: (1) to discuss the main features of the collective activities of liberal democracy; (2) to assess the media as a political tool of communication to the public knowledge; (3) to disclosure the selected social initiatives characteristics; (4) to perform selected media portals public commentators publications qualitative discourse analysis, highlighting the main findings; (5) to assess the dominant media portals statements by liberal democratic criteria and assessing the significance of the discourse for civil society. The qualitative discourse analysis method was used for the analyzed problem. A structured interview was also used as a method which helped to disclose and assess the positions of the online media commentators for the relevant civil initiatives. The research revealed that the initiative "supermarket boycott" attempted not only to use its collective action resources to change the market prices but to have solidarity with the most vulnerable social groups as well. Meanwhile the protesters against the new Labour Code were holding a position against the bill thus creating resonance within the society and contributing to the growth of the protest culture in Lithuania. The discourse of the public commentators in the public space assessing the civil and social initiatives opposes the liberal democracy principals where free people meetings (freedom of association) are one of the core ideas of liberal democracy. While having the resources to construct the public opinion, the public commenter's limit the possibilities for other opposing doctrines to appear and act - allowing us to make a conclusion that pluralism is not appreciated. The dominant discourse implies ideas about negative consequences for the liberal and civil society's development.

Civil society is a necessity without which democracy can turn into political technocracy. The neoliberal ideology faces new challenges forcing a rethink underlying the individual and the state and free media and its activity and specificity. We encounter a vivid problem when a group of people who own the media resources have all the tools to shape the public opinion according to their demands. Public commentators become the subjects of public opinion when they analyze the current events. The discourse which is created by these people has suggestibility, subjectivism and ideological style thus creating and having influence on the public opinion. This factor led to more closely analyze the Lithuanian media commentators public discourse in the context of civil initiatives and to evaluate the influence of the discourse of civil society development, based on the principles of liberal democracy. The object of this work is Lithuanian news agencies "Delfi.lt", "15min", "Lrytas.lt", and "lrt.lt" commentator's publications related to the mass initiatives of "supermarket boycott" and "protests against the new Labour Code" which both happened in 2016. The paper examines discreditation of civil initiatives, as one of the attributes of a liberal democracy, in the public space. In order to examine the problem, there are 5 tasks to fallow: (1) to discuss the main features of the collective activities of liberal democracy; (2) to assess the media as a political tool of communication to the public knowledge; (3) to disclosure the selected social initiatives characteristics; (4) to perform selected media portals public commentators publications qualitative discourse analysis, highlighting the main findings; (5) to assess the dominant media portals statements by liberal democratic criteria and assessing the significance of the discourse for civil society. The qualitative discourse analysis method was used for the analyzed problem. A structured interview was also used as a method which helped to disclose and assess the positions of the online media commentators for the relevant civil initiatives. The research revealed that the initiative "supermarket boycott" attempted not only to use its collective action resources to change the market prices but to have solidarity with the most vulnerable social groups as well. Meanwhile the protesters against the new Labour Code were holding a position against the bill thus creating resonance within the society and contributing to the growth of the protest culture in Lithuania. The discourse of the public commentators in the public space assessing the civil and social initiatives opposes the liberal democracy principals where free people meetings (freedom of association) are one of the core ideas of liberal democracy. While having the resources to construct the public opinion, the public commenter's limit the possibilities for other opposing doctrines to appear and act - allowing us to make a conclusion that pluralism is not appreciated. The dominant discourse implies ideas about negative consequences for the liberal and civil society's development.

With changes in economic system, cultural and creative industries that are associated with art, mass media and media activities comprise an increasing part of a country economy. Cultural and creative industries sector impacts the economic system not only through main economic indicators but also indirectly: it develops creativity, innovativeness and innovation, which encourage the sector development itself and contribute to the growth of other sectors. It provides an argument for the scientific problem formulated in the dissertation – what are the theoretical assumptions for the cultural and creative industries and how to evaluate cultural and creative industries sector? The research problem covers the majority of basic principles of the sector: evaluation of cultural and economic value, the opposition between economically inefficient cultural industries and commercially successful creative industries, impact on country's economic growth and welfare. In the dissertation the concept of cultural and creative industries was discussed; classification systems were analysed; concept of cultural and economic value was introduced; complex model of cultural and creative industries was presented, and the impact of cultural and creative industries on socioeconomic system was analysed. In order to evaluate the sector, predominant methods for evaluating the sector were reviewed, critical analysis of creativity indexes was performed, the demand for a new analytical tool was considered, and cultural and creative industries index was developed. Cultural and creative industries index has been calculated for the European Union countries (2000-2014); according the CCII the comparison European Union countries has been performed, and opportunities to apply it for further empirical research has been studied and possible trends for further evaluation of cultural and creative industries sector have been formed.

With changes in economic system, cultural and creative industries that are associated with art, mass media and media activities comprise an increasing part of a country economy. Cultural and creative industries sector impacts the economic system not only through main economic indicators but also indirectly: it develops creativity, innovativeness and innovation, which encourage the sector development itself and contribute to the growth of other sectors. It provides an argument for the scientific problem formulated in the dissertation – what are the theoretical assumptions for the cultural and creative industries and how to evaluate cultural and creative industries sector? The research problem covers the majority of basic principles of the sector: evaluation of cultural and economic value, the opposition between economically inefficient cultural industries and commercially successful creative industries, impact on country's economic growth and welfare. In the dissertation the concept of cultural and creative industries was discussed; classification systems were analysed; concept of cultural and economic value was introduced; complex model of cultural and creative industries was presented, and the impact of cultural and creative industries on socioeconomic system was analysed. In order to evaluate the sector, predominant methods for evaluating the sector were reviewed, critical analysis of creativity indexes was performed, the demand for a new analytical tool was considered, and cultural and creative industries index was developed. Cultural and creative industries index has been calculated for the European Union countries (2000-2014); according the CCII the comparison European Union countries has been performed, and opportunities to apply it for further empirical research has been studied and possible trends for further evaluation of cultural and creative industries sector have been formed.

It is suggested that the reader consider an earlier publication by the same authors with a similar theme: "Perceptions of criminal justice in society" (Dobryninas, A., Dobrynina, M., Česnienė, I., Giedraitis, V., Merkevičius, R. "On Perceptions of Criminal Justice in Society." Sociologija: Mintis ir veiksmas. 2012. Issue 2. pg. 222–238). This article empirically illustrates how criminal justice principles are used to understand different social groups' perspectives, what are the similarities and differences between these groups, how the intergroup communications about criminal justice issues form, and so on. The authors analyzed and summarized qualitative data (focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with Lithuanian criminal justice experts, politicians, journalists, community leaders) and quantitative data (using a Lithuanian representative survey of the population and Lithuanian mass media content analysis), which was collected during 2012–2014. The first chapter is devoted to the social normative perceptions of criminal justice, the second – the economic and political aspects which influenced the understanding of criminal justice in society, and the third chapter – examines the influence of mass media on the Lithuanian Criminal Justice system's public image. It is concluded that a consensus on the implementation of the principles of criminal justice among different groups is possible only in part. While the needs are the same as the criminal justice system, decisions must be impartial, objective, humane, equal for all, but how to achieve such a consensus of opinions is very divided. The study participants indicated a variety of reasons that impede the achievement of a mutual understanding: financial constraints, lack of inter-institutional cooperation, party or individual interests take precedence over the interests of society, the role of the media and so on. It is also proposed to improve the current situation in the organization and promotion of communication and alignment of interest between different social groups that have to be done in cooperation with the mass media and other governmental and nongovernmental institutions.

It is suggested that the reader consider an earlier publication by the same authors with a similar theme: "Perceptions of criminal justice in society" (Dobryninas, A., Dobrynina, M., Česnienė, I., Giedraitis, V., Merkevičius, R. "On Perceptions of Criminal Justice in Society." Sociologija: Mintis ir veiksmas. 2012. Issue 2. pg. 222–238). This article empirically illustrates how criminal justice principles are used to understand different social groups' perspectives, what are the similarities and differences between these groups, how the intergroup communications about criminal justice issues form, and so on. The authors analyzed and summarized qualitative data (focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with Lithuanian criminal justice experts, politicians, journalists, community leaders) and quantitative data (using a Lithuanian representative survey of the population and Lithuanian mass media content analysis), which was collected during 2012–2014. The first chapter is devoted to the social normative perceptions of criminal justice, the second – the economic and political aspects which influenced the understanding of criminal justice in society, and the third chapter – examines the influence of mass media on the Lithuanian Criminal Justice system's public image. It is concluded that a consensus on the implementation of the principles of criminal justice among different groups is possible only in part. While the needs are the same as the criminal justice system, decisions must be impartial, objective, humane, equal for all, but how to achieve such a consensus of opinions is very divided. The study participants indicated a variety of reasons that impede the achievement of a mutual understanding: financial constraints, lack of inter-institutional cooperation, party or individual interests take precedence over the interests of society, the role of the media and so on. It is also proposed to improve the current situation in the organization and promotion of communication and alignment of interest between different social groups that have to be done in cooperation with the mass media and other governmental and nongovernmental institutions.